HELSINKI — Chinese launch startup iSpace successfully sent a satellite into orbit early Tuesday with a solid fueled rocket mission a year after a launch failure.
The four-stage Hyperbola-1 solid rocket lifted off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert at 12:11 a.m. Eastern (0411 UTC) July 29. The rocket successfully inserted the Enshi Xidou Shanquan (HS-9) satellite into a 500-kilometer-altitude sun-synchronous orbit, according to a post-launch company statement.
The HS-9 satellite is a remote sensing satellite built by Zhejiang Miaoyue Aerospace Application Technology Co., Ltd., developed by Hunan Hangsheng Satellite Technology Co., Ltd., and jointly operated by Hunan Hangsheng Satellite Technology Co., Ltd. and Tianxieli (Shandong) Satellite Technology Co., Ltd.
The software-defined remote sensing satellite carries one onboard supercomputing payload and one optical camera payload for in-orbit application service verification, according to the statement.
The launch means iSpace now has a record of four successful launches and four failures. The company made history in 2019 as the first privately-funded Chinese company to reach orbit with the solid-fueled Hyperbola-1. However, the rocket suffered three consecutive failures following that feat.
After today’s successful launch, iSpace said it will continue launching the Hyperbola-1. The Yao-10 rocket used for the launch also verified the reliability and stability of a new production batch, according to iSpace. Meanwhile, the China National Space Administration announced new quality oversight rules earlier this month.
Despite the setbacks and checkered launch record, the company, full name Beijing Interstellar Glory Space Technology Ltd., announced Series D funding worth “several hundred million yuan” (100 million yuan = $13.8 million) in March.
The funding is mainly to be used for the research and development of the Hyperbola-3 methane-liquid oxygen rocket, with iSpace recently progressing with plans to conduct a test flight of the launcher by the end of the year.
Earlier in July, iSpace conducted a cryogenic static load test of its Hyperbola-3 first-stage liquid methane storage tank. The tank has a diameter of 4.2 meters and a length of 17 meters, and was produced using iSpace’s in-house new-generation friction stir welding production line. A pressure rupture test was stated to mark the next phase of testing.
The company said in March that it has three Hyperbola-3 rockets in various stages of production. It is targeting a first orbital launch with an attempted “sea recovery” of the first stage in December. If successful, it aims to conduct a reuse test flight in June 2026.
Earlier statements put the two-stage Hyperbola-3 at 69 meters long, with a diameter of 4.2 meters. It has a payload capacity of 8,500 kilograms to low Earth orbit in reusable mode and 13,400 kg to LEO in expendable mode.
Hyperbola-3 is one of a number of Chinese commercial medium-lift, potentially reusable rockets closing in on a test flight, along with Space Pioneer’s Tianlong-3, Landspace’s Zhuque-3, CAS Space’s Kinetica-2, Galactic Energy’s Pallas-1, and Orienspace’s Gravity-2. Tuesday’s launch was China’s 39th orbital launch attempt of 2025. It follows the launch of a fifth batch of Guowang satellites July 27. Long March 8A, Long March 11 and Long March 12 rocket launches are planned for the coming days, with launches from Expace, Galactic Energy and China Rocket also in the near future.